Day 65 - Shopping and crepes in Harajuku

Hey everyone!

Just a quick post today. I am still working on my second Kyoto blog post, it is almost done so it should be out in the next couple of days!

On November 15th Amy and I met up with Maisy and Rebekah again (friends from our original university) to spend an evening in Harajuku.

We met up by the station and walked up towards the shrine, it was unfortunately closed but the view of the train tracks from the bridge wasn't too shabby either.

We were pretty hungry as it was already getting kind of late so we decided to eat first.

We decided on something cheap and cheerful and that meant Gyuudon beef bowls at Yoshinoya. It isn't a restaurant where you would sit down and chat for a long time. Other than us, the clientele consisted of business men. It's definitely a place to grab a quick cheap and tasty meal. It was pretty small so we were going to have to split up into two groups but luckily someone left and we were able to all sit together.

I ordered beef without rice and a side salad set

The menu primarily consists of beef bowl sets but there are also a few other things such as curry available.

My salad

I have found myself really liking salads since I arrived in Japan. It could be due to the lack of vegetables in other restaurant dishes due to the cost of veg here. But I think the real reason is because they are just tastier! There are two salad dressings here that are pretty common and those are ごまsesame and 和風 Japanese style and they certainly make the greens delicious. Japanese salads don't often incorporate more bitter foliage such as rocket, which is not a favorite of mine. But perhaps one of the best things about Japanese salads is the potato salad! Japanese potato salad is so good! It is probably not the  healthiest component but it certainly is one of the tastiest parts. It's made with Japanese mayonnaise which is much creamier and less vinegary that English mayonnaise. 

Mmm look at those caramelised onions!

The salad came with a little snap pack of sesame dressing. I quite like these packs, as they are always easy to use without getting the dressing everywhere. The snap the pack and squeeze it so the little pockets are sandwiched in the middle and the dressing comes out from the center of the white cover.

After dinner we went for a spot of shopping. It being Harajuku, there was of course lots of good ol' Engrish and curious designs to enjoy.

On the bottom of the "yes" cap

Crepe time!

Of course no trip to Harajuku would be complete without a freshly prepared crepe! At the time there were serving winter special flavours. I went with the chestnut and pie pastry crepe, as usual it was pretty darn good (although not for the waistline of course!). Pretty sure whipped cream, ice cream, pie and an assortment of other sweet treats should not all be snuggled together under one blanket of crepe but who's to tell them it's wrong?! Not me, that's for sure!

It was only the middle of November so naturally the Christmas decorations were already out! Oh it feels like home!

We had a pretty good evening eating, chatting and shopping. I look forward to our next trip out!

The evening's bounty